Cl n Ij untan JHKni. 

BY PROFESSOR VARRO. 


1856 






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gorre;spon]Deno 1 e. 


Lancaster County Normal School, 

Millersville, May 24, 1856. 

Prof. F. J. P. Varro — Dear Sir: Onlbehalf the Page Literary As- 
sociation, we, the undersigned, respectfully tender you our sincere 
thanks for the instructive and truly^eloquent Discourse with which 
you favored us last evening, and also solicit the still greater favor of 
a copy for publication. 

Respectfully yours, 

D. S. HARLEY, 

0. S. FELL, 

JOHN L. MUSTARD, 

G. W. HILLIAS, 

S. B. RUSSELL, 

R. M. GIRVIN. 


Millersville, May 27, 1856. 

Dear Sirs : It is with pleasure that I comply with your solicitation 
of the 24th inst., although I am fully aware of my injustice to the 
subject discussed, you wish to publish. 

I remain yours truly, 

F. J. P. VARRO. 

To Messrs. D. S. Harley, 0. S. Fell, J. L. Mustard, 0. W. Hillias, S. B. 
Russell, R. M. Girvin. 











































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THE HUMAN MIND. 


Ladies and Gentlemen of the Page Literary Association: 

I trust that social enjoyment, end moral and intellectual 
improvement constitute the object which has called you 
together this evening. If so, yours is a purpose well calcu- 
lated to excite mutual sympathy and command united co- 
operation. 

The subject I have selected for my discourse is — “ The 
Human Mind as modified by different modes of Education .” 

When I think of the importance of my theme, and then 
realize my inadequacy to do justice to its investigation, it is 
with feelings of mingled pain and pleasure that I arise to 
address you. 

But notwithstanding this oppressive sense of my inability, 
I am not prepared to say, as is usually said on occasions like 
this : I could wish that the task and honor of addressing you 
this evening had fallen to the lot of another. Bather than 
do this, I feel it incumbent upon me to thank you for your 
high regard towards me — to hail it as a privilege, and thus 
declare unto you and the world that my sympathies are with 
the advancement of truth — my interest with the progress of 
man, in whatever circumstance, . condition, race, religion, sect, 
lodge or party he may be found. Be this my apology. 

The world, strangely diversified by art, rises boldly up on 
vision’s painted canvas, challenging judgment to contrast and 
comparison. Temples in grand, imposing magnitude and just 
proportion look down upon unsightly huts of rude unshapely 
sticks, thatched with bark, bedaubed with crude untempered 
mortar, windowless, chimneyless, floorless and doorless. Proud 
and stately men-of-war, ships, brigs and schooners, flaunting 



the “white and rustling sails,” pointing heavenward with 
their lofty masts, as if declaring withersoever they come, “We 
trust in God’s Providence” — and the fiery, snorting engine, 
boldly facing wind and storm, all publishing the world’s com- 
merce, the world’s unity, and prophesying of Universal Peace , 
make strange contrast with the frail and trembling bark-canoe. 
The clattering loom, the humming “jenny and mule,” the 
buzzing cards, the grating saw, all propelled by the lumbering 
wheel or wheezing engine — the busy, clod-refining plough, 
the waving grain-fields, and the full harvest of the growing 
year — the rattling wagon and the locomotive, flying meteor- 
like, the cannon bellowing of death, and forts boldly defying 
the onslaught of power — all that tells of peace, and all that 
tells of war, shows how unfathomable a chasm lies between 
civilized and savage states. The Press which indelibly im- 
prints on the flying sheet the oracles of science, the gems of 
literature, or the mandates — offers of mercy and eternal love, 
of the Almighty, as Creator, Preserver, Savior, Ruler and 
Judge of the universe, speak a language known only to civil- 
ization. 

Language fails to paint adequately and appropriately the 
external distinctions between the rude, uncultured savage 
states and the states where Civilization swings her scepter over 
the head of a charitable brotherhood; but when we look 
within — into the inner recesses of the two minds — the key to 
all this strange mystery at once is found. Gold cannot fathom 
the depth ; but even gold itself receives its nominal value from 
the same transforming power — the reassuming, calculating, 
skillful mind within. This stamps its intelligible impress and 
insignia on all the world of insensate matter — leaves its signet, 
seal, and ring, as on a parchment roll, to challenge admission 
at the court and bar of reason. 

Not only is the line of demarkation strongly and well-de- 
fined, deeply and enduringly drawn, between the diverse social, 
civil and moral states of barbarism and civilization, but even 
the pale of civilized society itself it forcibly entered by the 




same all-potent agency, and special localities are compelled to 
reveal the unequivocal tale — the workings of minds in differ- 
ent stages of devolopment ; and finally seizing every individual 
man, whether willing or unwilling, drags him before the in- 
quisition, and stamps, as indelibly and intelligibly as was the 
mark of Cain upon the forehead, upon all the person, and upon 
all the acts of each, his own especial and unambiguous sign. 
Not more clearly, and determinately, and effectually will be 
the great separation at that eventful day, when each shall in- 
dividually receive the judgment of Infallible Justice, than is 
individual and social designation through the operations of 
the mind. 

Sister, brother, we — each of us has his special label for a 
particular position, and by it we, steadily and regularly, even 
though sometimes struggling against it ourselves, or though 
struggled against by others, fall into our appropriate places. 

Neither are we to attribute all this to a fated necessity. We 
are not blindfolded, shackled, manacled and led captive by an 
inexorable fate or irresistible power, except as our condition 
is necessarily determined by antecedent causes, which are 
themselves mostly in our power, or in the power of those who 
have the controling influences of our early years — those years 
so fraught with the conditions of a' future necessity. 

Did you, teachers, ever fully apprehend your real power 
over the destinies of the children committed to your care ? 

Did you ever consider that if much of the condition of your 
children is to them inevitable, you nevertheless yourselves 
hold for the most part the guiding line for weal or woe ? And 
further, did it ever forcibly and vividly impress itself on your 
attention, that you give or permit to be given the fatal im- 
pulse during the very season when the young are least able to 
chose for themselves, much less to determine the volition of 
their choices? Yes, my hearers, during the first five or six 
years of our existence is the most determinate seed-time of 
life for an inevitable harvest of good or of evil. 

Thenceforward, like a rushing, headlong torrent, the passions 





brook no control. The hand of power may indeed for a mo- 
ment check its down-rushing turbulence, but it only pauses to 
gather new strength ; and when it overleaps the temporary 
b arrier, it bursts away onward, with still more uncontrolable 
fury. My friends, the teacher’s is a fearful responsibility; 
“for,” says the Proverbial Philosopher — 

“ Character groweth day by day, and all things aid it in unfolding ; 
And the bent unto good or evil may be given in the hours of infancy ; 
Scratch the green rind of the sapling, or wantonly twist it in the soil, 
And the scarred and crooked oak will tell of thee for centuries to come. 
Even so mayest thou guide the mind to good, or lead it to the mar- 
ring s of evil : 

For disposition is builded up by the fashioning of first impressions : 
Wherefore, though the voice of Instruction waiteth for the ear of 
Reason, 

Yet with his mother’s milk, the young child drinketh Education.” 

There are indeed necessary and uncontrollable circumstan- 
ces, which always claim their due share of consideration in 
deyeloping, conditioning and modifying the habits and char- 
acter of the man, and in more or less influencing his reputa- 
tion. Of such are each individual’s physical constitution, 
which binds as with an admantine chain, the intelligential 
faculties, and absolutely and arbitrarily dictates and controls, 
to a certain degree, the manifestations of the mental pheno- 
mena. Certain physical accidents of life, to which all are 
liable, and which fall upon all more or less ; social, political, 
civil and religious organizations and institutions, which, 
though much or little modified by each, nevertheless create 
uncontrollable influences around each; and the accidents of 
climate, soil, face of country, distribution of land and water, 
&c., all which absolutely tell on the individual, as well as on 
the social condition. Add to these the times and seasons; 
in other words, the great social and political movements which 
mark the epochs of the world’s slowly unfolding history, 
which stir the stormy depths of the mighty, the boisteriously 
throbbing heart of Humanity, and which seem to urge on- 
ward, and unconditionally direct the thronging multitudes, as 




the fierce whirlwind drives whither it will the empty chaff, and 
you may at first, and without reflection, suppose you have an 
array of irresistibles perfectly overwhelming. But a very lit- 
tle farther analysis gives other elements which should be de- 
pendent on the individuality of each. The ability to chose 
one’s own sphere of action, although very much modified by 
the early training of all and each, and though doubtlessly best 
for the individual and for society that it be partially forestalled 
by the action of the parent in assigning a trade or profession 
for the child, whilst yet in his childhood, should, nevertheless, 
under no consideration be compromised. Again, whatever 
the sphere of action , each separate act, volition and choice, 
in spite of all necessitated conditions, is the sole possession 
of the individuals self However much the mass of men, in 
their extreme docility, may permit their individuality to be 
absorbed, by easily resigning their own self-determining agency 
into the hands of others, they can in no manner rid themselves 
of the responsibility. We can by no possibility transfer our 
own individual responsibility from ourselves to Eve ; nor can 
she again throw it off onto Satan. The only possible result 
is, that more are implicated, except as superior intelligence 
may aggravate the guilt of one more than another where 
guilt attaches. There can be no other palliation but the fact 
of ignorance, which God winketh at. 

But however tempting this metaphysical theme, the objects 
of this discourse, and time, are incompatible with a further 
elucidation thereof, except that I may be permitted to say : 
Men with a strong sense of their own individuality, seize 
upon the pre-existing circumstances with an indomitable 
energy, and bend such as admit to their own iron self-deter- 
mination, or mount upon them, and by them are borne aloft 
conspicuous to the gaze of an admiring world. I am far, 
then, from yielding an unqualified assent to the old adage : 
Circumstances make the man ; but my position is rather 
that the man, finding the circumstances already existing, seizes 
upon such as are consonant to his own mental organization, 





and compels them to become the instruments for elevating 
himself. With them he contends, and through them he con- 
quers and wins a name more or less conspicuous, according to 
the character of his achievements. 

In the material world, the separate objects of vision reflect 
from the same light an ever-changing variety of tints, and 
hues, and colors, and shades of light, and lights themselves; 
so too, from the innermost recesses of their spirituality, men, 
when viewed as passive recipients, in the light of contempo- 
raneous, alien circumstances, reflect, according to their own 
individuality and constitutionality, the greatest possible va- 
riety of capacities and adaptabilities. Some of these extra- 
neous circumstances coalesce with the predisposing elements 
of the individual temperament, as if by the force of the at- 
traction of affinity, and bring to view and illustrate the pecu- 
liarities, whilst other circumstances float unheeded by. Truly 
one may, and multitudes do mistake the appropriate sphere 
for him or themselves, and thereby but feebly, or badly act 
their part in the world. So, too, numberless swarms float 
idly along whithersoever the storm, and wind, and changing 
tide may bear them. They live by chance. To them all 
things and circumstances prove to be so many necessities ; 
they yield to this and to that — they murmur at the decrees of 
Providence, and they are overtaken by death before they are 
even ready to live. 

These facts, though to a superficial observer apparently 
conflicting with the above argument, are in reality not only 
consistent with, but corroborative of that argument; for, if 
we change the scene, and view man as an intelligent, active 
agent, he immediately appears as the fabricator of not only 
his own fortune (which fact has long since passed into a pro- 
verb,) but of his own reputation, and by his own internal self- 
determining agency, of his own character, of his own mind, 
and of his own mental development and manifestation, con- 
sistent with the existing means of accomplishing this last, 
most important result ; and with the absolutely and uncondi - 




tionally pre-existent necessitated conditions, which may place 
insurmountable barriers . in the way. Thus the conditions of 
idiocy not only mock at the attempts of anxious parents and 
teachers to reach and successfully unlock the barred and bolted 
passage-ways to the vacant chambers of thought within ; but 
could the idiot’s self be impressed with its want, and aroused 
to active endeavor in its own behalf (an impossibility by the 
way,) its most strenuous efforts would be more unavailing far 
than the feeble flutterings of the caged bird, in its futile and 
ineffectual attempts to escape from the wiry gates of his 
prison-house. In the same manner, though differing from 
each other in kind and degree of hindrance and freedom, all 
men, even the most intellectually powerful, are more or less in 
one way or another, under the restraint of limitations. But 
still the question concerning individual differences, and more 
especially social differences , returns only partially satisfied. 
In general terms, it has been answered that the great distinc- 
tion lies in the mind; and that this is not absolutely necessi- 
tated. Now, as all human bodies are composed of matter 
essentially alike, and of essentially like organs, with essentially 
like functions, yet differing in the aggregate in form, size, 
color and general qualities, and especially in their capabilities 
of action and endurance, so, doubtlessly, all human souls are 
essentially alike, one to another — essentially alike in their 
entities — essentially alike in their adaptabilities — essentially 
alike in their functions, and essentially alike in their gene- 
ral activities; but specially different in their manifesta- 
tions of mind. Then, although these principles be correctly 
assumed, (and who will presume to dispute these positions ?) 
it may be still questioned, whether individually they may not 
be equivalents to each other. But it should be remembered, 
that the corporeal capabilities, as has already been shown, 
limit and qualify the mental manifestations, both in kind and 
degree in different individuals, absolutely, and, that this is 
only partial. Here, then, is a failure individually. It does 
not reach the entire man. Most especially would this fact 



12 


THE HUMAN MIND 


fail when applied to communities, or nations, or races ; since 
it may be fairly assumed, that the national capabilities of dif- 
ferent masses (all other things being equal) are equivalents, 
to say the least. 

But here in our dilemma and confussion relief breaks in 
from another quarter — a ray of certain light scatters the dark- 
ness and guides us to the truth. 

One of the most striking characteristics of the human soul, 
in contradistinction to corporeal capabilities, or even to the 
brute spirit — one of the most striking characteristics of the 
human soul, I repeat, is its capability for indefinite develop- 
ment, both general and special, and its tendency to special 
activity, in a given manner, and on given objects, or class of 
objects, for contemplation ; in other words, its susceptibility 
for Education. 

Education consists in nothing more nor less than habituat- 
ing the mind to certain activities, to the apprehension of cer- 
tain facts, or assumed facts, and their relations. 

This, I think, embraces the entire signification, and in this 
light all the phenomena of individual and social differences, 
not accounted for in our analysis above, are easily and clearly 
explicable. Do men individually differ widely, in whom we 
might have looked for equivalents, we confidently point to 
their Education as the all-sufficient cause. Do nations, tribes 
or races widely differ in the condition of the people, in the 
state of the arts and sciences, in the moral and religious sen- 
sibilities and practices, and in the political sentiments and in- 
stitutions, we again turn with unshaken confidence to Educa- 
tion as the all-sufficient cause. No other is needed, no other 
is admitted, and no other should be sought for. This is the 
element entirely within our reach, and may be almost wholly 
under our control.. 


Education, according to the definition above given, as a 
term, is of very comprehensive import, and as a fact, includes 
all those mental operations by which men attain to appre- 
hension by the understanding, to conception by the judgment, 





and to retention by the memory of all subjects, objects and 
formulae of thought, whether from without or from within. 

Non-Education is a misnomer. It supposes a state of 
perfect ignorance, or rather perhaps of utter destitution and 
blankness in the intelligential capacities — a state difficult to 
be found in ordinary humanity, long after one’s first introduc- 
tion to the world of sense. It is, to say the most, only a ne- 
gative state, not capable of doing a positive injury. Educa- 
tion may be right and it may be wrong, and a wrong Educa- 
tion is called Mal-Education or Mis-Education. 

Mal-Education fills the mind with falsehood. It is a sub- 
tle poison and potent in the repulsion of truth, seizing upon 
our weakness and proneness to error and sin. It is the bane 
of humanity — the greatest evil against which Philanthropy, 
Civilization and Christianity are compelled to combat. 

In the Domestic Circle it engenders discontent, envyings, 
jealousies and wranglings from false interpretation of conduct. 
In the Social Organizations it creates false distinctions, un- 
just prejudices, grinding inequalities, and unfeeling oppression ; 
in Politics it breeds false issues, false theories, false politics ; 
falsely and injuriously creates invidious distinctions of caste, 
of privilege, of title — unjustly confers power upon the strong, 
and takes away from the weak and defenceless even the 
strength which he seemeth to have, and poureth golden trea- 
sures into the over-gorged purse of wealth; but cruelly 
wringeth from the withered, tremulous hand of poverty and 
meagre want all its living. In Morals and Religion it puts 
bold blasphemy into the swaggering mouth of beardless youth, 
of stammering childhood, and even of lisping infancy ; dictates 
glaring falsehood to cover the deed of shame — to gain some 
paltry mill in trade — to sustain some petty end in a war of 
words, some party-issue, or sectarian view; lending sanctimo- 
niousness to the logomachy of sects, and staking eternal 
salvation upon the interpretation of a word, or the empty 
observance of a ritual, or the hollow mummery of forms, of 
ceremonies, of liturgies ; the unmeaning counting of the rosary, 






14 


THE HUMAN MIND. 


the idiotic performance of ablutions, of sacrifices, of penances 
and mortifications of the flesh, and attitudes numberless. It 
arms superstition with goading thongs of fear and livid terror, 
with ridiculous charms, and potions, and incantations, and im- 
precations, and anathemas, and popish bulls, and curses. It 
peoples the empty regions of imagination with fairies , and 
elfins, and elf -candles — with cantrips, and giants, and drag- 
ons — with spunkies, and brownies, and warlocks, and kelpies 
— with goblins and hobgoblins — with dead-lights and appari- 
tions of the dead — with wraiths, and ghosts, and nightmares 
— with phantoms, and witches, and wizzards, and devils, and 
vengeful furies, and table-turnings, and spirit-rappings. It 
fills one man’s mind with all the fullness of mysterious nothings, 
and from another, no less a credulous fool, blots out with 
equal ease and success the most substantial conceptions of 
Almighty God, and of spirits good and bad makes such blank 
atheists. In Science it impertinently puts forth as principles 
formula of meaningless words ; thence, having assumed this, 
so baseless a foundation, it builds up some airy system of de- 
ductions from false premises, exhibits to the gazing, gaping 
world the imposing spectacle of a pyramid on its apex, fills 
empty pates with a few rattling sounds, labels them for the 
market of fooldom, fixes a sterling price thereon, and sends 
forth thus accoutred, thus equipped, the boasting mountebank, 
the tattling charlatan, and the puffing demi-savant, the sciolist 
of farthing wit, to — 

“ Rid the people’s pockets of their hard-earned cash, 

And fill their greedy ears with senseless trash.” 

Or, what is worse, far worse, from such baseless hypotheses, 
pursues its metaphysical deductions, until it imagines itself to 
have annihilated God and man, spirit and matter, and then 
impudently calls this annihilation “Science of Reason.” And, 
entering the precincts of Art, it racks the brains of fools to 
invent some gaudy fashion, some trifling gew-gaw, some funny 
fiddle-de-dee, or some minute imitation of the useful ; it wastes 




the energy of ninnies upon an aimless strife to clothe some 
hero or heroine in wondrous, witching qualities ; to lend vice, 
and immorality, and all licentiousness the attractive garb of 
swimming pleasure, for the purpose of entertaining the addled 
brains of fellow ninnies, and of wringing scalding tears for 
miseries which never did exist, from eyes which never lent one 
sympathetic tear, and sighs of anguish from bosoms which 
never heaved one sympathic sigh over real, pining, famishing 
want, tremblingly clinging to their very threshold, or hanging 
to their flaunting skirts, stretching out its skinny hands for a 
morsel wherewith to satisfy the agonizing cravings ; for some 
cast-off garments wherewith to guard its shivering limbs from 
the biting cold ; or, for some healing draught, to relieve the 
feverish pains of poverty, stretched on the anguished pallet of 
sickness or of death. Or, it exhausts the mental and pecu- 
niary resources of multitudes, in the fruitless pursuit of in- 
ventions which the plainest principles of science positively 
and unconditionally declare to be absolutely impracticable to 
human beings, and under the present laws of matter, possible 
to God himself, only in the vacant fields of limitless space ; 
and finally, it drugs the sighing, whining, wry-faced world 
with restoratives, preventatives and panaceas — with pills and 
powders, and elixirs, and kathairons, and innumerable beauti- 
fying agents, that promise to restore wrinkled hags to bloom- 
ing youth and youthtul bloom — to restore the dying to vivified 
health, and almost to resuscitate the dead and buried. And, 
to cap the climax of imposition, it promises, for the reward 
of $5, after having your name, your birth-day and hour, to 
read from your horoscope and nativity, your whole future, as 
far as the waiting grave. 

All these moral abortions and mental monstrosities are 
the dearly bought results of mal-education— and more than 
I can tell or your can hear. Ridiculous, contemptuous game ! 
Scandalous foolery! It is the practical application of the 
sum of all evil, brought upon us by our degraded fall. 

No course of villany — no exhibition of folly, of uncouthness, 




16 THE HUMAN MIND. 


of corruption, of abandoned degradation, of unprincipled 
licentiousness, of grovelling sensuality, of sordid niggardliness, 
of pinching, grinding, enfeebling avarice and overreaching 
fraud ; of a reckless chasing after the distinctions of wealth 
and station ; no manifestation of hypocrisy, of superstition, of 
bigotted intolerance ; nothing of evil in the whole catalogue 
of human depravity that can be named or imagined, but as- 
suming our liability to error, and tendency to sin and evil, we 
may confidently affirm to be a direct or indirect result of mal- 
education. 

It is a false and baseless assumption, that the mass of men 
are uneducated. They are educated with a vengeance! 

They have drunk in Education from the poisoned fountain 
of error and falsehood, and maddened with the drafts they 
have quaffed, they were well said ; of by the Savior : “ They 
know not what they do” 

Now, true Education is the appointed means of counter- 
acting all this mass of evil. 

As the saying “that no man ever became suddenly plunged 
into the depths of vice and wickedness,” so we may safely 
assume, that without a miracle no man ever become eminently 
good in a moment of time, to change from vice to holiness, 
and the spirit of God assisting, he may be able to persevere 
in an irreproachable course of conduct. But what a conflict 
with passions ! What tears must be shed over the oft-recur- 
ring monitions, from those nests of wrangling vipers, deep- 
seated in the innermost recesses of the soul ! 

But, says the wise man: “Train up a child in the way he 
should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” 
When this principle is thoroughly understood and applied, 
then, and not till then, will come that glorious time “when 
no man shall say to his neighbor : Know thou the Lord ; for 
all shall know Him, from the least to the greatest. And he 
will put His laws into their hearts, His seal upon their fore- 
heads, and He will be their God, and they shall be His people.” 


Fellow teachers, would it be highly desirable that your 




THE HUMAN MIND. It 


pupils understand and practice some great fundamental prin- 
ciple of Virtue and Religion, they must be educated into it. 
There is no alternative but sin and death. A man is not edu- 
cated, though he may thread the labyrinthian maze of num- 
bers — though he may be able to scan complex principles, com- 
prehend boundless systems of lines and angles, and giant-like, 
grapple with the mighty problems of mathematics. Nor is he 
educated who can look into the starry vault above and name 
every dot which spangles her pearly depths ; nay, though he 
be able to tread the steep verge of heaven, and trace the 
trackless orbs of ten thousand sweeping worlds ; for Education 
may be defective, and it may be complete. Truly, that edifice 
which lacks some important parts, or which remains unfinished, 
or which is composed of poor materials, or which is badly 
wrought by the workmen, is defective in its structure. It 
scarcely need be added that Education, in like manner, may 
lack in some important parts or elements. 

Have a man’s affections, passions, or appetites been left to 
grow at random, that man’s education is defective, notwith- 
standing his intellect and morals may have been elaborately 
and carefully nourished. 

Has his self-reliance, tempered with a child-like trust in 
God’s Providence, been neglected, his Education is sorely de- 
fective ; he is incapable of encountering the rude buffetings of 
a selfish world, and will droop and wither at its first frowns. 

Have any of the intelligential faculties been neglected — 
are his habits of observation, of memory, of generalization 
and correct classification deficient in activity, and promptness, 
and accuracy — is his understanding, or his judgment, or his 
capacity for tracing the chain of sequence and causation weak 
and inefficient by disuse — in any of these suppositions his 
Education is warped. 

So, too, supposing everything relating to the sensibilities 
and morals be properly attended to, we may still ask : What 
shall be the intellectual training in particular ? 

With most people, perhaps, something is liable to be made 





18 THE HUMAN MIND. 


a hobby to the exclusion of everything else ; yet, some of these, 
by puffing themselves in newspapers, may play the Barnum 
for a little season — become literary bantlings, or godfathers 
to a series of Arithmetics — rise like rockets into the literary 
atmosphere, and fall like sticks, among a bramble-bush of 
righteous indignation. 

Is one delighted with mathematics, nothing but factors, 
and prime numbers, and axioms, and problems, and theorems, 
and puzzles, and mathematical quips, can find any favor with 
him. Abstract cattle, sheep and horses are his companions 
by day, and abstract apples, nuts and strawberries his favorite 
refreshments at all times. Natural Sciences are only specula- 
tions and probabilities in his vocabulary. Languages, ancient 
or modern, are but a splendid humbug , dry as chips, and he 
is a perfect bore in his mathematical monomania. Again, is 
another pleased with the conceptions of language, he dreams 
in unknown tongues — he sports with the patience of his asso- 
ciates by mystical quotations, and by giving them the history, 
biography, and genealogy of long categories of unintelligible 
sounds. He proves no less a ibore to his associates who sit in 
moody silence at the revelation of his linguistical disquisitions. 
And so we might go on to the end of the chapter. 

With others, and by far the largest class, too, the first, the 
last, and only important question, repeated in every turn, and 
reproduced at every corner is : What is it good for ? How long 
will it take to master it ? Or rather, How soon can knowl- 
edge enough of the subject be obtained to be put in practice ? 
In short, our quizzer is a rank utilitarian. 

Nothing is of consequence to him, except it come stamped 
with the seal of utility. And his measure of utility in Edu- 
cation, and even in his Religion, is the same as for butter, 
cheese, potatoes, or, if he be of the wealthier class, it may be 
bank notes, or railroad stocks, and State script, &c. He 
has said to gold: “Be thou my god;” and his practical lan- 
guage to Almighty God is : How much will you give me, if 




THE HUMAN MIND. 


19 


ril be a Christian ? And when will you pay me? And is 
there any gold in Heaven ? 

I aver here, without the fear of successful contradiction, 
and regardless of giving olfense, that to this very standard, 
however revolting, when stripped of special verbiage, the 
great mass of Yanheedom would reduce all Education , all 
Politics and all Religion! I am not mistaken. The signs 
of the times are unmistakable. They carry the evidences of 
their conviction unfurled to every breeze, and inscribed in 
glaring capitals of burnished gold, they challenge the scrutin- 
izing eye of God and man. 

We have set a false estimation upon our property. We 
have invested it with a value not inherent — not its own ! But, 
whilst I would thus express my entire disapprobation of this 
craven-spirit, so rife among us, I would also avoid the opposite 
extreme. I would have a just discrimination used in deter- 
mining the proper course of study to be pursued, and whilst I 
would seek to cultivate in just and fair proportions the entire 
man, I would not hesitate to consult the future of each man. 

It is but just that Science should lay hold upon Art — that 
men should profit from knowledge. Indeed, the great mass 
of mankind must, from sheer necessity, be engaged in pro- 
ducing the' necessary conveniences for the body ; and it is one 
of the chief recommendations of Science, that it is succeeding 
in the subjection of nature, to meet the growing wants of civ- 
ilized and christianized Humanity. 

Let the masses, then, study Science with these advantages 
continually in view ; but let them not, in their haste and ea- 
gerness to change everything into gold, forget that the Soul 
has infinitely higher claims than the perishing body — that the 
the Soul in its intelligential capacities and moral adaptabilities 
requires far different food to luxuriate upon, from that which 
it requires in performing its services to the body. It has a 
higher office to perform, even in this imperfect state of being ; 
it lives a higher life than the body lives. Strictly speaking, 
the body is only concerned for the Present ; but the Soul 

. C. ' 


20 


THE HUMAN MIND. 


speeds far away into the forgotten ages of the Past, and claims 
an interest in all that has been ; boldly leaping forward, it 
essays to raise the curtain of unlimited Future, and claims an 
unquestionable interest in all that shall be; and, on untiring 
pinions, it fearlessly soars away into the limitless regions of 
stellar space — visiting worlds and systems of worlds, and 
claims an interest in all which is. 

It is but reasonable that it should be fed with food conso- 
nant with its own character. He who neglects it, shall reap 
the reward of his neglect ; for the Soul craves angel’s food, 
and disdains to glut itself on the filthy morsels of earth, else, 
compelled, it shrivels and shrinks to pigmy dimensions ; it 
pines for freedom, sickens, dies. 

See ye yon caged eagle, once the proud monarch of the 
clouds ? He built his eyry high on the beetling cliff which 
overhangs the stormy deep, and when the fierce winds lashed 
the yesty waves to madness, and drove them headlong to the 
frowning shore, he sat and calmly viewed the elemental war, 
or shook with fear the lioarse-wheezing breasts with his long 
defiant scream. On pinions strong, he boldly soared beyond 
the thunder’s fiery home to where an unclouded *sky forever 
spreads its cerulean canopy over the world, darkened with 
howling tempests. Thither he sped his daring flight to look 
the unveiled sun in his blazing face, and to watch the far- 
away, unwary quarry. But now he is a prisoner ! How he 
dreams of what he was, and chafes at what he is ; and though 
caressed and pampered — though shielded from storm and 
heat, yet he pines for liberty. He stretches his broad ex- 
pansive wings and endeavors to try their strength. But, alas ! 
it is in vain — the strong bars forbid. He spurns the proffered 
food — sits drooping on his perch — he pines for liberty — he 
sickens — dies. 

Thus the Soul, though in this prison-house of flesh feels 
itself the rightful monarch of all this world of animated mat- 
ter — knows itself crowned and titled to supremacy by its 
Divine Creator, and expects a patrimony in the spirit world. 





THE HUMAN MIND. 21 


Hence, though the sluggish mass of dust to which it is at 
present wedded, is bound in sure chains to earth, where storms 
and tempests rage — where pain and sickness, want and 
anguish are at their busy work ; yet it owns no allegiance nor 
submission to these tyrants, but soars in thought to where 
no storms ever shake the elements, nor darkness spreads a 
horrid gloom ; where no pain nor sickness racks and wastes the 
shrinking frame. It soars to where God sits enthroned in 
His unveiled Divinity, or even dares to plunge down into the 
lowest depths of the world of woe, and thus reveling in un- 
bounded freedom of action, it anticipates its future state, in 
which desire is but the prelude of actual enjoyment. If so 
be, it has reached the haven of God’s Holiness ; but if other- 
wise, may I not add that desire is but the prelude to eternal 
disappointment. 

Think not, I beseech you, that this, my feeble attempt to 
inspire elevated views of the Soul, is out of place in this dis- 
course; for lo! it is Education — an open gate to honor, 
wealth and happiness below, and will lead us from the scanti- 
ness of man to the fullness of God, where the earthly sun- 
beam becomes a sun of glory, and the drop of faith an ocean 
of BLISS. 

When teachers come to look upon the children committed 
to their care, as immortal Souls, rather than mere mortal bodies 
of sense ; when they come to entertain correctly, even an ap- 
proximate conception of the true effects of this world’s pil- 
grimage on the inevitably consequent condition of the world 
to come, then, and only then may we expect to see America 
taking the lead in deep and thorough Education. Then, too, 
shall parents know that God will require their children at their 
own hands ; that the address will not only be, 11 Adam where art 
thouV ’ or 11 Gain, where is Abel, thy br other V' But it will 
be: “Thou, Father, where are those whom I gave thee?” 

That searching, that soul-thrilling question, Christian parent, 
you shall one day answer at your peril! 






/ ^ 




22 


THE HUMAN MIND. 



That searching, that soul-thrilling question, unchristian 
parent, you shall one day answer at your peril ! 

That searching, that soul-thrilling question, Christian or 
unchristian teacher, you shall one day answer at your peril. 

Happy will be your lot, if you can answer: “I have kept 
those whom thou gayest me, and none of them is lost.” 

Let then every teacher’s tongue be loosed and arm be 
raised to crush iniquity and sin, and immorality in every form. 

May you all be reformers ; may the golden rule be your 
guide, Education your motto, the world your field of action, 
the good of universal man your object, and a new generation 
will inscribe your names on the scroll of fame, where they shall 
be read, in characters of gold — 


Until the silvery moon her starry train 
Shall group no more around her festal board, 
Or till forgetful of his daily task, 

The mighty orb of day shall cease to roll. 






I SUBJOIN THE FOLLOWING METRICAL COMPOSITIONS AS A 
MEMENTO OF LASTING FRIENDSHIP TO THE STUDENTS 
OF THE NORMAL SCHOOL. 


AWAKE, MY SOUL! 

Awake, my Soul ! for higher spheres created 
Than this vile clod ; 

Remember that thy being emanated 
From out of God. 

Arise ! ascend on glad Aurora’s pinions, 

The realms of Love ! 

Crave nought of Earth's unsanctified dominions ; 

But “ THINGS ABOVE.” 

The Spirit says : Come up ! come ever higher ! 

The Bribe says : Come ! 

The Bridegroom willeth, lo ! he dwelleth nigher 
His Father’s Home. 

And onward ever, higher still ascending 
In fields of Light, 

The Soul, in its ascension never ending, 

Breathes Pure Delight. 

While thus the Soul is panting for Perfection, 
Behold the Lamb 

Points out to it, through veils of Truth's protection 
The Great I AM. 


THE STUDENT’S-rPRAYER. 



Assist us, Lord, send out thy Word — 

The Bread of Life. Reveal thy wondrous glory 

To all mankind, however blind 

And ignorant they be of Jesus’ story. 

Thy shining light dispel the night 
With all its dreary gloom, and dismal terrors : 

Its holy flame — a Jesus’ name 

Lead back transgressors from their sinful errors. 

Thy watchful eye is ever nigh, 

Beholding good and bad in all our dealings ; 

Its holy rays, in all our ways, 

Warm up our hearts with heaven-aspiring feelings. 

Lord, make us wise, direct our eyes, 

That we may find the ways of Truth forever ; 

Grant us that love for “ things above” 

Which neither fear, nor grave from us can sever. 

Our sins forgive, and while we live 
To sow the seeds of Truth among the nations, 

To life-long health add heavenly wealth, 

That we may fill efficiently our stations. 


And when life’s last loved scenes are past — 

When ’neath our tombstones these weak frames shall moulder, 
May we be blest where angels rest — 

Where Youth will never change, nor Love grow colder. 


Truly yours, 


VARRO. 





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